North Korean Rocket Trajectory Revealed

Yesterday afternoon, Barack Obama who is currently in South Korea, briefly was within bullet range (if behind bulletproof glass) of North Korea when he stood on the edge of the DMZ separating the two feuding countries. A few minutes later he left and told the world that "Bad behaviour will not be rewarded" referring to the imminent launch of North Korea's Unha-3 rocket scheduled for a test launch in April. He added that "I will also note that every time North Korea has violated an international resolution, the Security Council resolution, it has resulted in further isolation, tightening of sanctions, stronger enforcement. I suspect that will happen this time as well." Alas, we doubt that Obama's warnings will have much of an impact and that in a few weeks NK will go ahead and hit the launch button undeterred, in the process forcing Japan to scramble its Aegis destroyers and take other countermeasures as discussed last week, in case the missile "veers of course." But just what is the trajectory? Courtesy of North Korea Tech, we now know the secret path the North Korean rocket is expected to take. All we can say is there better not be strong Westerly winds.

North Korea’s Unha-3 rocket, scheduled for launch next month, will drop to earth in two stages off the western coast of South Korea and to the east of Luzon Island in the Philippines, according to documents submitted by the country to the International Maritime Organization.

The documents, obtained by NorthKoreaTech.org, were sent to the IMO’s London headquarters from the DPRK’s embassy in the U.K. They carried the name of “Ko Nung Do,” who is identified as director general of the DPRK’s Maritime Administration.

Some of the information restates what has already been disclosed by the country: that the launch would take place from a satellite launch site in Cholsan County of North Pyongan Province during a five day period from April 12th to 16th.

They also include some new information: that the launch could take place anytime between 7am and noon local time (2200 to 0300 GMT); and include the coordinates of the projected drop zones for the two-stage rocket.

The rocket’s path takes it over the western tip of South Hwanghae province in North Korea then over the South Korean islands of Baegryeong-do, Daecheong-do and Socheong-do, and then across open water until it passes between Japan’s Miyako and Ishigaki islands before heading further south.

The details were provided to the IMO so that the international organization can warn shipping traffic to stay clear from the two areas.

A similar notice is expected to be provided by the International Civil Aviation Organization to aircraft.

North Korea’s last rocket launch in 2009 was from the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground in the east of the country and had the rocket flying over Japan en route towards the Pacific Ocean.

Many countries have urged North Korea to halt the rocket launch, which is widely seen as a long-range ballistic missile test and not a satellite launch. Japan’s defense minister has publicly said he may order the deployment of Patriot missiles to the Okinawan islands so that the rocket can be shot down should it fail and pose a danger to Japan.

Below you can see copies of the letter and an embedded map illustrating the two zones.

Full rocket trajectory below. Citizens of Philippines be afraid. Be very afraid (source).

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Maybe the Phillipinos should say they feel existentially threatened hire a few lobbyists and casino owners to buy a bunch of senators and a president and thereaten bombing or an invasion and then I bet we would do something stupid?

A junk for pointing that out? Apparently someone doesn't think the target area is in deep water?

Besides avoiding a direct fly-over of Nork neighbours (in as much as is possible), the northern part of the target zone covers part of a particularly rough and deep bathometry, consisting of hundreds of volcanic sea mounts, and numerous deep fracture zones (mountains, cliffs, chasms), that extend right down through the sediment pile, and into the base of the oceanic crust as giant regional-scale cracks.

If the Norks have an inertial guidance system (at a minimum I would say) worth any spit they can easily drop the spent missile within any 500 meter circle (most probably much smaller).

This high res TOPEX image of the bathometry of the area shows deep crustal fractures, that are tens of kilometers wide, and one to two kilometres deeper than the surrounding very deep ocean. Have a look;

The Norks can and will drop this missile into deep water, where it will be exceptionally difficult to locate or recover. They certainly will not drop it, intact, into relatively shallow water, when it could be found, recovered and examined. And no doubt it will be fitted with a terminal flight self-destruct to disintegrate and scatter it, before it enters the water.

The US will struggle to find any part of it in that area.

And the US, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China and Russia will all very much want to have a close look at it.

The US and Japan will definitely try to find and recover it, and the Norks are not going to make that easy.

It's not a map. It's a false-colour satelite IMAGE derived from 30-second-arc wide satellite transects that recorded geopysical data that was processed minus the effect of the ocean water, that was then transposed as an implied 3D topographical relief depiction of the entire globe.

It is thus more-or less real and has been 'ground-truthed' in various complex locations with a significantly higher resolution towed imaging/mapping sonar, that found a very close correspondence between what was directly measured by its sonar acoustic transect, and what the satelite data had indirectly implied should be there, and what it should look like, in terms of topographic relief, depth, and also measured gravity anomolies.

I read the target of all N. Korean rockets are, in fact, Tehran. So I don't see a problem. And even if the hit Hawaii, well, this will lower my cost of tourism should I max out my credit cards and go there. Pimpin' ain't EZ.

Aimed right at our base in the Phillipines. What's the matter, did they forget what happened to the French Embassy, in Baghdad, after France refused to allow us to fly over their country when invading Iraq?

If theirs is just a "test", then us BLOWING IT OUT OF THE SKY can be "just a test" also.

Funny how Saddam and Kadaffy could roll through cities sticking out the sunroof of an SUV, or in a convertible, with thousands of AK armed people shooting in the sky, yet any "top government official" of the US has to either be in a fucking tank on wheels, in an above-ground bunker, walking through a bullet-proof tunnel of Lexan, or at a military base where all the troopies have been disarmed.

And here you have it. Not funny at all. Despite Saddam et al being of a minority tribe in their countries, any assassin knew that if he failed, or even if he succeeded, he as well as his entire bloodline would be ruthlessly tortured unto death.

See, such knowledge cuts down on insurection.

Many cases of the Brits in Afghanistan, they killed all but one of the rebellious, and buried them in pigskins, leaving one to tell the tale. Hitler's SS would use entire towns as artillery targets if a German garrison troop was killed....here is the thing folkz...you fight a war to win. Period. And you DONT FIGHT A FUCKING WAR UNLESS IT IS A MATTER OF YOUR OWN SURVIVAL. But hey - have fun you military dudes. You won't win...

...you haven't won since NINETEEN FUCKING FORTY FIVE...but hey...why ask why, right? You get some trigger time in and convert some brown skins or yellow skins to smoking meat, while your taxes pay to import somalis to live in the midwest...hey, what?

No, really, enjoy your funtime wars...little lesson here - don't get so far in debt you feel you have to enlist just for a paycheck, and don't believe you need to fly around the world to murder those who allegedly be hatin' on our freedoms...look around you and read the papers...plenty right here who be hatin on your freedoms.

I hope everyone that voted for the Barry "Peace Prize Usurper" Soetoro chokes to death on their spit in their sleep.

How's that $4/gal gas working out for you waterheads? Are you proud of your race-baiting commie-in-chief? Can't wait to get to the polls to vote, once again, for your energy costs to necessarily skyrocket?